More anti-hero stuff.
We know the good guy will make the sacrifice to save the day because that is their nature. But will the anti-hero make the sacrifice to not be a dick.
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The Earth itself doesn’t have to be hanging in the balance. Smaller plots are just fine.
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I don’t need a month-long plot broken into 2hrs; I’d really rather have a more limited duration being represented.
More on that point: I recently watched the Director’s Cut of Napoleon, and found myself wishing it didn’t have such a “biopic” feel, where 20 years of events was condensed down to 3.5hrs. Quite frankly I’d rather have a vibe more like “The Raid: Redemption” where it doesn’t have to be Real Time, but closer to that serves a better narrative.
I keep thinking back to Rogue One, at the end of Act 2 where our Team Of Heroes has been assembled and they’re traveling towards the epic showdown that is Act 3. They’ve got a few days to spend in hyperspace, and we get one brief scene establishing that fact, quick banter between a few people, and off to the big showdown.
It felt so rushed to me that I wondered what I was missing over those days spent in travel; how characters were preparing themselves for what was next, how they were reconciling the events that led them to this; there is an utter wealth of joy that can be found by just slowing down and letting characters exist in time, instead of just minimal exposition followed by action.
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Radio dramas.
Wait, “want to see”. Forget what I said.
More scarecrow. He’s always in the background, doing his strange little fear experiments. I’d like to see something like the Year One comic, going into his unhinged actions as a professor, his weird shit with grandma, and Batman tracking him down like a serial killer.
Adaptations of three superhero books that make you feel good about reading superhero books:
James Robinson’s Starman:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starman_(Jack_Knight)
Starman, Ted Knight, is a legacy Golden Age character who invented a device called the Gravity Rod, later refined into a Cosmic Staff, which collects energy from the universe, granting the weilder the ability to fly and project force fields and force beams. Similar to a Green Lantern ring, but not as detailed.
Roll forward to the present day, Ted has retired, his son David has taken over for him as Starman, and his son Jack wants nothing to do with any of it, he’s happy running an antiques and collectibles store.
An old villain from Starmans past, the Mist, comes back for one last gasp as he’s terminally ill. Assisted by his two children, they kill David and attempt to kill Ted and Jack. Jack has an old Cosmic Rod stuffed in a closet and uses it to escape. He agrees to take up the Starman name if his dad promises to use his science to make the world a better place.
Very strong father/son dynamic, the power of inheritance, the power of what a legacy means. 81 issues plus assorted crossovers. Just a great run of comics.
Alan Moore’s Tom Strong:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Strong
Kind of cheating here because Tom TECHNICALLY isn’t a superhero, he’s a SCIENCE hero… but really, what’s the difference? ;)
Around 100 or so years ago, Tom’s parents treated him like a science experiment. They raised him in a high pressure chamber to simulate a higher gravity, and fed him an elixir which gives him good health and an extraordinarily long lifespan.
Tom and his family use science and advanced technology to advance human causes and fight other science threats.
It’s a Doc Savage pastiche in the same way that Fantastic Four is. So you have Monk and Ham in Doc Savage portrayed as Ben and Johnny in FF or King Solomon and Pneuman in Tom Strong.
Kurt Busiek’s Astro City:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astro_City
There’s no singular character or storyline here, it’s a retro futuristic city FULL of super characters, but the differentiator is you witness the world from the perspective of the humans living in Astro City.
